It has long been known that rotary cutters can be utilized to sever substantially endless lengths of material into predetermined lengths for feeding into machines for further processing. These cutters generally involve the use of oppositely rotating rolls, one of which carries cutting blades and one of which serves as an anvil against which the material is cut by the blades. Such cutters are generally disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,628 ('628 patent), which is incorporated herein by reference. While the cutters generally disclosed by the '628 patent are useful machines, the cutting blades thereof experience wear as a result of extended use. As the blades wear to a certain threshold, the equipment connected with the cutter assembly must be taken offline in order to repair or replace the blades. Such repair or replacement results in the associated equipment being offline for an extended period of time. When the associated equipment is offline, the throughput of that equipment is essentially halted until the repair or replacement is complete. Therefore, the amount of product produced with the assistance of this equipment is also essentially halted during this timeframe.
Thus, a need exists in the art for a means of reducing the time that equipment associated with a cutting roll assembly is offline. It is also desirable to provide a cutting roll assembly that results in more effective blade repair or replacement. It is also desirable to provide a cutting roll assembly that incorporates improved alignment of the cutting roll components.